


Raisins Are Good

by Lady_Felucia



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), kylux - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Bonding, Crushes, Cute, Cute Ending, Developing Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gay For You, Gay Male Character, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, High School, Hux-centric, I Ship It, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Implied Relationships, Kylo Ren - Freeform, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, Kylux - Freeform, LGBTQ Themes, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Secret Crush, Senpai Notice Me, Short & Sweet, Short Story, Star Wars - Freeform, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015) - Freeform, Teen Crush, The Force Awakens, Young Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 10:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12579260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Felucia/pseuds/Lady_Felucia
Summary: Armitage Hux is a quiet, introverted boy living with his dad. Things have been somewhat strained in his life after the death of his mother last year, and he sometimes finds it difficult to let go, and have fun, the way other teens do.Halloween night rolls around, and his best friend, Phasma, tries to encourage him to get out of the house for once, and accompany her to Halloween party being held at the house of Ben and Rey Solo, two teens that Hux and Phasma go to school with. But Hux is reluctant to go, not only because parties aren't his forte, but because he has had a long-standing, and somewhat embarrassing crush on the older of the siblings, Ben. While Ben is unaware of the extent of Hux's feelings for him, Hux still feels uneasy and nervous being around him.Eventually, Phasma convinces him to come with her--and it turns out to be a surprisingly enjoyable night for the redhead.





	Raisins Are Good

Hux answered the door, and couldn’t help but smile.

His best friend, Phasma, stood out under the porchlight. She was wearing a long pink dress, with a white sash that said Prom Queen 1976. Her long white-blonde hair had been dyed a temporary strawberry hue. Her arms, face, and the front of her dress were painted up to look delightfully bloody. On her head was a mangled tiara, also splattered with fake blood.

Hux folded his arms and leaned against his door, grinning. “Excuse me, Miss, but you look way too old to be out trick-or-treating. Get off my porch before I call the cops.”

Phasma rolled her eyes and pushed past him into the house. Behind her, a group of children had come up then walk, and Hux doled out handfuls of candy into their bags before joining Phasma in the living room. She looked him over critically.

“Why aren’t you ready yet? Come on, Hux, hurry up or we’ll never get there!”

Hux sat down beside her and sighed.  
“I don’t think I want to go.”

“What?!”

“I don’t think I want to go. I mean, what’s the point? He probably won’t even be there.”

Phasma reached over and hit him, hard, on the shoulder. He winced; Phasma was quite a bit stronger than she seemed to realize, and sometimes her teasing physical gestures would cause actual pain.

“Why wouldn’t he be there? It’s HIS HOUSE.”

“But it’s not his party; its Rey’s.”

They were talking about Ben an Rey Solo, two siblings who lived in the house down the block. Tonight, the younger sibling, Rey, was throwing a Halloween party, of which she had invited at least half the school, including Hux and Phasma. Even though they weren’t precisely friends; Rey was a sophomore, and her brother Ben was a senior, like Hux and Phasma. Yet they shared mutual friends through sports and various after-school clubs, so they had been invited. Although Hux had said he’d come at the time, now that the time was here, he found himself chickening out.

And Phasma knew WHY, too.

For quite some time, Hux had had a crush on Ben Solo. The two had the same homeroom teacher, and both belonged to the school newspaper and the Yearbook committee. Several times they had been to one or the others houses for study groups, projects, club meetings or to hang out with mutual friends, but they had never been in a one on one setting with each other.

Hux had only come to acknowledge, both semi-publicly and to himself, that he was attracted to boys this last year, and the transition into acceptance was somewhat difficult for him. His father didn’t know, and only a handful of his closest friends did. He knew that Ben liked both; sophomore year he had had a girlfriend, junior year, a boyfriend. This year, however, he had been single, and Phasma had been pestering Hux to make a move on him for months, now.

But Hux was terrified of that idea.

He had as much experience with dating, as a bird had flying underwater. And Ben was so smart, so funny, so charismatic-

-and so, so _handsome_ , that just the thought of being in the same room as him made Hux’s palms go sweaty.

“Hux, come on, now,” Phasma was saying to him insistantly. “Whether he’s there or not, that shouldn’t stop you from having a good time. Lots of people we know will be there, plus pizza, and drinks, and music, and all that happy crappy stuff kids our age are supposed to like.” 

Hux nodded, knowing that his arguing against this would be an exercise in futility.

“When’s the last time you went out, or had any kind of fun, Hux?”, Phasma was now saying, gently. “I swear the last party we went to was that one last year, before-“

Here she trailed off nervously, not wanting to finish her observation.

But Hux knew what she meant.

A little over a year ago, Hux’s mother, after a long battle with cancer, had passed away. It had been brutally hard on Hux, watching the one person he loved more than anyone in the world waste away, bit by bit. And afterwards, he had dealt with his grief by NOT dealing with it, at all. He took no bereavement period from school (other than the day of the funeral), he didn’t cry, and he wouldn’t talk about it. Not with the school counselor, whom his father had made him go to, not with his father himself, and not with Phasma. It was months before he could even begin to open up about it, and Phasma was there for him every painful step of his recovery.

Besides being there to talk to, she worked tirelessly to try and ingratiate him back into a social life, and pull him out of his introverted shell a bit. So, it was no surprise that she was encouraging him now to go to this party with her.

But still-

“I really don’t have a costume, though,” he said, still rallying to get out of the situation.

Phasma put her huge purse into her lap and rummaged through it determinedly. “Yes, you do,” she said. She pulled out a long black folded-up cape, and a white, half-length facial mask. “You still have that suit you wore to that wedding last year, right?”

Hux nodded reluctantly.

“Okay. Go put it on, along with these,” she ordered, handing him the cape and the mask. “You’re going to be the Phantom of the Opera.”

Hux took the items and sighed, trudging up the stairs to his room.

“And get a move on, please!”, she called after him.

\---

The Solo house was loud.

It could be heard way out on the street, as Hux and Phasma walked up. Phasma adjusted her dress as she rang the bell, and looked over at Hux. “Relax, will you? Your face looks like you’re constipated.”

The door opened, and Rey stood there, beaming out at them.

“Yay! You came!” she exclaimed, jumping out to hug each of them. Rey Solo, while she didn’t quite exude the same magnetism as her brother, was a lovely, compelling force to be reckoned with nonetheless. She was small and slender, with long brown hair, freckles, and gorgeous hazel eyes. Tonight, she had on a bright red one-piece, and on her head, she wore a bright blue spiked wig. Written in sparkly black letters across her chest was Thing 1.

“I love your costumes!” she said, looking each of them over. “Carrie, and the Phantom, right?”

Phasma nodded and grinned. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Do you have a Thing 2?”

At that moment, a tall, handsome boy came up behind Rey and squeezed her around the waist, eliciting a startled squeal from the pretty girl. He was dressed in the same manner as Rey.

Finn was a junior at their high school. An African-American boy, he was sweet, intelligent, and very funny. He belonged to the JROTC program, and more than half the time he could be seen walking around the halls in the olive green and khaki uniform. He and Rey had been dating for the past year, and seemed very much crazy about each other.

“Hey, guys,” he said, smiling at both. He kissed Rey’s cheek, his arms still around her waist, as he said, “I’m glad you could make it the wife and mine’s little soiree.”

“Wife?” Hux asked, chuckling. “Wasn’t aware you two tied the knot already. You should have told us; we would have sent you a toaster.”

At that moment, a loud crash came from the kitchen, and Rey turned around, sighing. 

“We might need SEVERAL new appliances before the night is over,” she said wearily.

Finn hugged her tighter before letting go. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” he said, heading off towards the kitchen.

Rey watched him leave with a fond smile, before turning back to Phasma and Hux.

“Well, enjoy yourselves tonight, guys. There’s food all over the place, drinks, too. Have fun!”

She left them, and Phasma looked around at the massive swelling of people. There was loud music playing, the selection right now being Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Several people were trying to do the zombie dance in the middle of the living room. Others were laughing and talking, scattered throughout the house. Several open boxes of pizza and bags of chips could be seen on various tables, along with 2 liters of soda, and a few bottles of beer.

Phasma spotted a group of kids that they both knew, sitting at the dining room table, playing with a Ouija board. “Come on, let’s go say Hi,” she said, yanking on Hux’s hand. Hux remained rooted to the spot. He knew Phasma would want to join in the Ouija board game, but he had seen enough movies to know that was a horrible idea. To keep her from saying anything, he lied and said, “I’m going to see if I can find _him_.”

Phasma nodded and smiled. “Okay, good. Happy hunting!” she said, as she moved off to join their friends.

Hux circled the rooms, stopping here and there to chat with people he knew, but otherwise keeping to himself. In truth, he WAS searching for Ben, but Ben was nowhere to be found. Which was probably just as well; Hux wouldn’t know what to say to him even if he DID find him.

Eventually, Hux found his way outside, out onto the back steps, sitting down with a thump. It was cold, but he’d rather be outside than inside with the noise and the blasting music. 

Looking out in the dark yard, he could just barely make out a swing set, one of those little kid deals, red and plastic, with a small attached slide, in the corner by the fence. As he sat looking at it, a soft panting sound caught his attention.

Turning his head, he found himself looking a large, shaggy brown dog in the face. It was staring at him as if to say, _You don’t belong out here_.

Hux tilted his head, trying to remember the dog’s name. “Chewie?”, he asked it, head tilted. The dog wagged its tail and gave a short bark. 

“Hi, Chewie,” Hux said, reaching over to pat it. “Remember me? Hux?”

Chewie licked his hand. On the steps beside him was a small, chewed-up rubber ball. Hux picked it up and held it up. “Do you know how to fetch, Chewie?”

Chewie sat up on his haunches, his tail wagging frantically.

Smiling, Hux tossed the ball out into the yard. “Fetch!”

Instead of running after it, Chewie just sat and looked at Hux, as if the latter had done something wrong.  
Hux sighed and patted Chewie’s head again. “That’s okay; good effort.”

“He doesn’t respond to ‘fetch’,” said a deep voice from behind him.

Hux twisted his head around, and was surprised to see Ben standing behind him. Tall and pale, his skin practically glowed from the dim light of the glass doors behind them. He walked past Hux and out into the yard, retrieving the ball. He brought it back and sat down beside him on the steps. He held the ball face-level with the dog.

“Ready, set—HUNT!” he yelled, tossing it over Chewie’s head. The dog sprinted off immediately after it, catching it in his mouth before it had a chance to touch the ground. He bounded back up the steps with it, and dropped it eagerly into Ben’s waiting hand.

Hux smiled a little. “Hunt? That’s an odd command.”

Ben smiled back and nodded. “Not my idea; it was my sister’s. Just like this loud-ass party. But once she gets an idea in her head, it’s hard to make her back down from it.”

Now he looked at Hux curiously. Hux hoped he wasn’t blushing; he didn’t think he had ever gotten this physically close to Ben, alone, before. He smelled incredibly good, and his body was giving off such pleasant waves of warmth that Hux was having a hard time not scooting closer into him.

“How come you’re not inside with the others?”, Ben asked him. 

Hux shrugged. “To be honest, parties aren’t really my thing. I just came because Phasma made me,” he admitted with a chuckle.

Ben nodded as if he understood. “Same, kind of. I’m here because my parents didn’t want Rey throwing a party without supervision.”

Hux looked at him. “So, where’s your costume?”

“This IS my costume,” Ben said, gesturing to himself. He was wearing black jeans and a plain black long-sleeved shirt. “I’m a homicidal maniac; they look just like everyone else.”

“You stole that from The Addams Family.”

“You’re right; I did.”

Hux pointed to the swing set. “That; why do you have that? Do you and Rey have a really young brother or sister hiding somewhere?”

Ben started to laugh, and shook his head. His laugh was rich and deep, and it floated across the night air like music.

“No. It was here when we moved here, and my dad just never got around to taking it apart. He’s kind of like that with everything, like, a hoarder. Never throws anything out. You should see his car; its horrifying.”

A cold burst of air flitted past their faces, and Ben involuntarily shivered.

“It’s too cold out here for me. Um, why don’t you come with me? We can go to my room. If you want to, that is. I can steal one of the pizzas, and I’ve got video games, if you’re interested.”

Hux’s heart had started to pound, and he knew that his face was probably red, as much from the cold as from Ben’s very unexpected invitation. He had been over here before, yes; but never to Ben's actual room.

“Okay,” he said as calmly as he could, He stood up and followed Ben and Chewie inside. Like he said, Ben walked into the living room and snagged one of the pizzas, and a bottle of soda, from the table. He came back into the kitchen and grabbed two cups from the cabinet.

“Follow me,” Ben said, leading the way back through the living room.

The same bustle of activity was going on as before, and Hux spotted Phasma, now dancing and laughing with some of her friends in the corner of the living room. She spotted Hux following Ben up the stairs, and Hux would have paid money, to have a picture of the look on her face. He grinned and waved at her, before continuing up the stairs.

Ben flipped on the lights in his bedroom, and sat the pizza and soda down on his desk.

Hux looked around himself. Ben’s room was large, more like a mini apartment than a bedroom. It was in a space that would probably otherwise be an attic. The ceilings were high and pointed, and there were several tall windows that looked out on the street below. The walls were covered with an assortment of posters and pictures. There were two old, comfortable-looking easy chairs positioned in front of a tv. His bed was a mattress sitting on the floor, covered in a heavy black blanket, with black pillows. He had one large black bookshelf, stuffed with a helter-skelter of books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, and video games. The walls were painted a very deep blue-gray, just hinging on black, as well.

“Your room is pretty sweet,” Hux said, going to sit in one of the easy chairs. Ben sat in the other one, bringing the food with him. He sat the items down on the little table that was between the two chairs, and picked up his remote.

“Thanks. My dad calls it the Dungeon, because of all the black. But I like black; it’s my favorite color.”

Hux took a piece of pizza from the box. He chewed reflectively, before saying,

“Black isn’t a color, though. I mean, technically, not really. It actually absorbs all—”

“It absorbs all the other colors but doesn’t reflect any of them back to the eyes,” Ben finished with him, chuckling. “I know, I know; I’ve heard that from mom, and dad, and Rey. But I don’t care, I still call it a color. It’s like that same shit with Pluto not being a planet anymore.”

Hux laughed and nodded. “To each his own, Ben.”

“I wanted to paint the walls actual black, but mom wouldn’t let me. Said it was too depressing; so, I picked the next darkest color I could find.”

Hux looked over at him, and took a sip of his soda before saying “Anything that makes you happy, isn’t depressing. For example, I love raisins, but Phasma says that’s depressing.”

“You—love raisins? I wasn’t aware I was inviting a psychopath into my bedroom.”

“Raisins are good! In a way, they’re just like chocolate chips; chewy and sweet.”

“My God,” Ben said, shaking his head, “How do you sleep at night under such delusions?”

Hux laughed again, and took another bite of pizza. “I don’t, actually. I go out nights dressed in a raisin costume, killing people.”

Now both boys laughed, hard. Ben laughed so hard that he started to choke, and Hux jumped up in alarm, clapping him on the back.

Eventually Ben calmed down, and said, red-faced, “Is that how you kill people? Forcing them to laugh to death?”

“It’s the easiest way. You don’t have to physically touch someone to do it. No fingerprints, no evidence. It’s the perfect crime.”

The mention of touching others made Hux realize that his hand was still on Ben’s back, and he drew it away hastily, sitting back down.

“In all seriousness, though”, Hux resumed, after a few moments, “I really don’t sleep that much at night. I’ve been an insomniac since, like, 10 years old. I’m usually up until 3 or 4 in the morning most nights, even school nights.”

The expression on Ben’s face had shifted to one of recognition. “That’s really weird; but, so am I. But I think I’ve got you beat; my dad says I’ve been like that since birth.”

Hux took a deep mental breath, and said, casually,

“What’s your number? We can be no-sleep text buddies.”

He tried hard not to blush. He had never asked a guy directly for his phone number before, and was worried that the way he had just gone about it was obvious and clumsy.

He was beyond relieved when Ben not only gave him his number with no hesitation whatsoever, but asked him for his own number in return.

“Be prepared,” Ben said, as he typed the digits into his contacts, “You’re going to get bombarded with weird memes, drunk-looking selfies and long-winded conspiracy theories.”

The thought of Ben sending him a picture of himself, even a ‘drunk-looking’ one, sent goosebumps down Hux’s arms.

He shook them off and answered, “I’ll look forward to it.”

The two boys began to play video games on Ben’s PlayStation. It was odd, but the longer Hux was around him, the more his nerves died away. Talking became easier, and he was finding that they had more in common than he had realized.

Ben must have felt so, too, because he said, somewhat awkwardly, “I don’t think I’ve talked this much since I was in therapy.”

Hux looked at him, surprised.  
“You were in therapy?”

Ben nodded, his eyes still focused on his game.

“For like, 3 months, last year.”

“Can I ask why, or is that too personal?”

“No, it’s okay. Um, last year was kind of bad for me. Two bad things happened, back to back, and I had trouble handling them. Or at least that’s what my mom said, she said I was acting different, and I didn’t talk anymore. The first thing was that Poe broke up with me. You know who Poe is, right?”

Hux nodded. Poe Dameron had been Ben’s boyfriend for over half of junior year. He was one of those guys that constantly looked he had just stepped off the set of a shampoo commercial. Hux knew him, but only in a very vague way. They had had history class together, and gym. Hux had been mildly jealous of Poe, because he had been lucky enough to snag the likes of Ben Solo.

And ‘mildly jealous’ was putting it, mildly.

“He left me, and then, right after that, like literally a week later, my grandpa died.”

Ben looked up guilty when he said that last part.

“I know,” he said, softly. “To feel grief over the loss of an old man is probably very stupid. An old man who had lived a long, happy life, and died naturally, peacefully in his sleep. Stupid. But, it, like, wrecked me. Mentally. So, mom made me start going to a therapist.”

Hux cautiously put his hand on Ben’s shoulder, giving it a warm, timid squeeze. “It’s not stupid. It’s not stupid at all, Ben. I’m guessing that you were close to him?”

“I’m not saying I don’t get along with my parents, or Rey, because I do, you know? I love them all. But grandpa, was different. Grandpa understood me better than the others do. I know you’ll think I’m lame for saying this, but it’s true: he was a lot like—”

“Like your best friend?”, Hux finished his sentence, gently.

Ben nodded.

“That’s not lame. I get that, Ben, I really do. I felt the same way about my mom. I have my dad, and I have Phasma, who’s really a lot like a sister to me, but my mom was the _one_ , you know what I mean? The one who got me better than anybody.”

Ben nodded slowly. “I do get that.”

They were both a little quiet after that, but Hux had the distinct impression that something had changed, some subtle thing had passed between them. They had just bonded over something that was a hard subject for either of them to really talk about. It made Hux like him even more, getting this brief glance inside of him. He only wished he knew how Ben felt about HIM.

Changing the subject, Ben cleared his throat, and asked,

“Have you ever seen Frankenstein? The old one, from like, the 50’s or 60’s?”

Hux shook his head.

“They’re playing all those old movies at the theater tonight, one night only showing, for Halloween. Frankenstein, Nosferstu, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, all those classics.”

He looked at the clock sitting on his dresser. It was 10:28.

Now he looked at Hux, and for some reason, he seemed—nervous?

“I don’t suppose, you’d want to go with me? Tonight? To see them?”

Hux was so surprised that it took him a while to gather his wits, to answer.

“What about your sister?”

Jokingly, Ben replied, “She doesn’t like old movies, and it’d be rude for her to leave her own party, don’t you think?”

“No, I meant-“

“I know what you meant. But I think she’ll be okay for a few hours. Plus, that boyfriend of hers is here; he’d never let anything bad happen.”

A slow, wide smile lit up Hux’s face.

“I’d love to go, actually. But you don’t think I’ll look a little weird, in a costume like this?”

Ben shook his head. “Not really; it IS Halloween, after all. But if you really want, you can take off the top part of your suit, and the cape and mask, and I can lend you something else to wear.”

Hux smiled even wider at the thought of wearing something of Ben’s. “Okay,” he agreed.

Ben turned around and began pawing through his dresser drawers, until he came up with a solid dark green pullover hoodie.

“Is this okay?” he asked, holding it up. Hux nodded; but honestly, he would have put on a pink tutu if had been something that came from Ben.

Ben handed it to him and said, somewhat shyly, “It matches the color of your eyes; such a pretty green.”

This time, Hux couldn’t help the blush he felt spread over his face, and he said, “Thank you” very softly.

Ben nodded, and was it Hux’s imagination, or were HIS cheeks a trifle red as well?

He didn’t think it was his imagination.

“I’ll leave you to change,” he said, heading for the door. “I’m going to go tell Rey and Finn that we’re going.”

“Okay,” Hux said, as Ben closed the door gently after himself. Hux stood up and pulled off the top half of his costume, before pulling Ben’s hoodie over his head. It was just slightly big on him, but it was warm, and comfortable.

And it smelled just like Ben.

He sat down and waited for Ben to return, when his phone began to beep insistently. He pulled it out of his back pocket. There was a text from Phasma, which he read with a smile.

_I don’t mean to interrupt your sex, or whatever you’re doing up there with him so long, but a small group of us are leaving to go back to my house for movies. Do you want to come with, or--?_

**Go without me** , Hux typed back. **Be safe. I’ll text you in morning**

_You’d better. Love you! Be prepared to be drained for details btw!_

**I know. Love you too**

He put his phone into his pocket as Ben came back into the room.

“All set. Are you ready?”

“Ready,” Hux answered with a smile, as he followed Ben out the door.


End file.
